Diario di Bordo – Day 3

Sunday 03 luglio – Day 03

Reality and dreams. Two distant planets that sometimes collide. In this particular instance, it’s called fate.

ShorTS International Film Festival 2016 provides the opportunity to get to know both these existential shores, through a long and intense journey.

An unforgiving wind has seen us move once again to the Teatro Miela for a long evening of screenings.

The night opens with the short Divento Vento, from the workshop organized by Mestieri del Cinema, a gluttonous opportunity for young people to get to know the internal structures of cinema.

We laugh sincerely when faced with the two brothers who, having decided to raise two chicks, flaunt their vegetarianism and vehemently confront their parents, sometimes violently. This all takes place in Michael Lennox’s Boogaloo and Graham, which harnesses an ecological gag to recount the light and dark sides of family life.

Just as entertaining in its caustic mockery of inter-racial problems is the Sarmad Masud’s English short Two Dosas, where a young man with Indian roots becomes aware of his strong bond to the West and therefore also how emotional bonds with foreigners can assume sarcastic implications. The two young adults sat before us makes us double over with sincere laughter, hinting at a great success.

Coming from Brazil, the next short is a tale about the phonetic: Pedro Paulo De Andrade’s O melhor som do mundo.

Almost a children’s version of Gene Hackman in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, the young protagonist dedicates his body and soul to completely personal research project.

Simply extraordinary is the young female protagonist of Ena Sendijarevic’s Fernweh, which flings us into the internal struggles of a foster family. It is a work of many unexpressed nuances, all of which are advantageous.

Here we are now laughing affectionately at the unfolding sequence of events affecting Pia, a red-haired animated creation intent on discovering the engagements and disengagements of the journey of existence: A Single Life, directed by the trio of Job, Joris & Marieke.

When we play, anything is possible! Christian Sulser’s Scrabble provides you with clear proof of this, where the metaphor of the game works together with others that are of a much more profound significance.

It may seem to be a drama with grim undertones, but be careful not to undervalue to subtle narrative course marked out by Jaime Valdueza in Burned, which also showcases exquisitely directed actors.

Next comes the comeback of the weathervane protagonist of Jan Snoekx’s Voltaire who, after am explosive experience, totally changes his life and his attitudes in what is almost a quantum leap in the category of noble animals.

Mark Kunerth’s The Girlfriend Experience is another tale of accidental online happenings, where the search for a female presence doesn’t have the desired effect. Entertainment is assured!

Something that will never fail to repeat itself is how the female perspective, in cinematographic terms, always has surprises in store for us and enables innovative visions and new directions. Finnish director Isabella Karhu amply demonstrates this in Pojat where, amongst other things, the storytelling is totally attuned to the masculine world.

In a conclusion that’s surreal to the point of almost being mysterious, Mihai Grecu’s fascinating methods in The Reflection of Power make the subject matter seem to have been almost chucked about in the editing machine in what is a captivate and illogical journey of images.

The temperature drops noticeably upon leaving the theatre and finally we can walk through the cool air reflecting on what we have already seen and what we are yet to see!

Next stop: Monday night.

Riccardo Visintin

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